All around the world, people experienced a similar thing. Those who wrote their names on the sheets of paper were whisked away to the floating island. A day was given for those who changed their minds to back out, and when that day was over, the competition would begin.
When Leon arrived at a random location on the floating island, a notification popped up in front of him.
[You have arrived on the Island of Fate! Here, you shall decide your fate with your own hands. You have 24 hours to make up your mind on whether to stay or not!]
Leon stared at the red notification screen before waving it away and looking around. He was in the middle of a clearing, with a small stream running through the edge of it, and surrounded by trees. Everything was lush and green, looking like the ideal place to make a camp.
‘Nope. Not an ideal place. A water source means that there must be predators and other creatures that come here to drink.’ Leon quickly thought as he looked around. He smartly spun on his heels and walked off into the forest, albeit carefully just in case anything was waiting for him.
After a few moments, Leon noticed something strange.
“There are no animals.” He noted under his breath, looking up at the lively trees. Apart from the sound of the rushing stream, and the rustling leaves, he could not hear a single chirping bird. Either that meant something bad was about to happen in this area, or there were simply no creatures during the twenty-four-hour window.
This was all strange and new to him, so Leon could only move on with what he was doing, but he raised his vigilance up a few notches just to be safe.
After walking through the dense forest for another five minutes, Leon finally arrived at the base of a rather large three. Its trunk was as wide as three of himself standing shoulder to shoulder. It was that wide. Its roots were thick and long, and from where Leon stood, a bunch of them rose and formed a sort of arc above the ground. The arc was as high as his chest and was quite spacious.
“This would be a nice place to set up camp.” He nodded to himself and waved his arm, summoning half a dozen large millipedes. “Dig.” He ordered, and the millipedes immediately began digging the ground under the roots. Some of them focused on breaking up the sturdy earth, while the others packed out the dirt and dumped it just a bit away from the hole.
The millipedes were very thorough, and after a couple of minutes, the hole they had dug was already so deep that Leon could stand inside it without the top of his head being revealed.
“Good, good.” He nodded. “Now, make an open space. This might be where we stay for a while until I get a good reading on what we should do next.” He instructed. Hald an hour later, a space that was roughly the size of a small room had been dug out. Leon stood in the middle of it with his hands on his hips. With a thought, he summoned Nedra, who surprisingly appeared in her Queen Millipede form.
“Why are you in your millipede form?” He asked her, quirking a brow in surprise.
‘No reason. I was just experimenting something.’ She replied mentally as she walked all over the place. She stopped at a few spots and stabbed her pointed front limbs into the ground. ‘Strong earth. Hmm…’ She commented before coming over to Leon once again and shifting into her human form.
Seeing how effortlessly Nedra was switching forms, Leon decided to give it a try as well. He focused on the skill that allowed his to transform, <Adaptable Body>, which had been active ever since he gained this human form, and then switched it off. He could feel a strange pulse of mana flow through his body from his head to his toes, and when it had run through him, the flesh on his bones began to evaporate. Literally.
Dark wisps of smoke lifted off Leon’s body as his skin and flesh melted away, giving way for the signature black bones of an Obsidian Skeleton.
“Ah, it’s been a while.” He sighed. He felt as if he had just stepped out of a stuffy room for the first time in days, taking a breath of cool, fresh air.
“Feel’s nice to stretch, huh?” Nedra chuckled.
“Mhm. Let’s head out for a bit. I want to know more about where we are.” Leon nodded and led her out of the underground space. The entrance was only a small, meter wide space that was hidden at the back of the space underneath the arc made by the roots of the large tree.
When they climbed out, they looked around, trying to figure out which direction to head in. Leon summoned a millipede and had it climb up the trunk of the tree, and when it was high enough, he shared its vision to check if there was anything worth noting in the area.
“That is…” Only moments later, Leon found something that caught his interest.
“What did you find?” Nedra quickly asked.
“A… A glowing tree?” Leon was confused as well. But it was obvious that there was nothing normal about that glowing tree. Had they been fortunate enough to spawn close to a treasure? How many others were this close? Would there be any treasure now, or would it only appear when the 24 hour period had passed?
First of all, he needed to scout a bit more.
With a thought, over a hundred millipedes were summoned, and their dark, beady eyes stared at Leon as they waited for instructions from their master.
“Go, search for any others, and report back to me.” He ordered, and the crowd broke up, delving into the thick bushes and disappearing behinds rocks.